Hours

Basic Computer Maintenance

Is your computer slowing down? Don't toss it out the window, give it some routine maintenance.

Disk Cleanup and Repair

1. Click the Start Button, then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. You will know this is finished when the window closes.

2. When Disk Cleanup is finished, run checkdisk by clicking on the Start Button, then All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt. When the black window opens, type in:
chkdsk c: /F Press the enter key. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU STOP THIS OPERATION BEFORE IT HAS FINISHED RUNNING ALL THREE STAGES! This will find and repair disk errors. If you have a large disk and/or many errors, this step may take a couple of hours or more, so do not start this task unless you can afford your computer whatever amount of time is needed to complete it. Chkdsk may tell you it cannot run now and ask whether it should run after the next reboot. Tell it yes, then reboot.

3. After checkdisk is finished, click the Start Button, then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Click on your C: drive (or any other disk you wish to help) then click the defragment button and let the program defragment your drive. Again, do not interrupt the process, it needs to run to completion.

Spyware RemovalAnother problem that can really slow your machine down is the day to day accumulation of spyware. To fix this problem, you can Click Here to download a Spyware remover. Be sure to do the updates. You can schedule this program to run daily or you can run it manually, which should be done often.

Virus Prevention and CleanupYou can pay upwards of $50 a year for an antivirus program or you can download a really good antivirus program free. For complete protection, we believe that AVG is the best available. For this reason we offer a quick download of the Free Home version. Please read about it by visting their Home Page. There are also a number of other free programs. They are generally antivirus only, not complete protection systems. Be sure to do the updates. Please remove any other anti-virus software first by going to Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove programs, selecting the old antivirus program and removing it.